Fruit Of The Kingdom

Provision that is far above what might be called “adequate” has been made available to us to give ourselves over to a Person and His governmental order that we might glorify Him through a life which testifies to that order. In speaking to the Jews of His day, Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.” (Matt.21:43, NASB) In The Message that verse reads quite plainly: “God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life.” Those Jews, to whom Jesus spoke, were most tedious at observing and keeping all the laws and feasts of Judaism, yet Jesus doesn’t seem to think that those observances are producing any fruit of the Kingdom. After all of their legalisms and religious effort, they have yet to produce the fruit of the Kingdom which, evidently, results in the need for the Kingdom (God’s redemptive governmental and legislative authority in the earth) to be given to a people who will produce said fruit. Some people, somewhere, at some time must (1) align with scripture, (2) contradict culture and (3) bring forth the fruit of the Kingdom by acting redemptively (enabled by Holy Spirit) to reverse the effects of darkness (Matt.13:33; 1Cor.2:4; Col.1:13; 1Jn.3:8 and Jn.20:21; Acts 1:8).

(This is the sixth excerpt from Marty’s article “Don’t Stop Short” which was published in SEEC Magazine. More excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Previous excerpts may be read by scrolling down this page.)